Life is good for Kyle Busch, the lightning-rod NASCAR Sprint Cup driver.

He reinforced his standing as the hottest NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Saturday night by winning the NRA 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, a result that brought boos and cheers as Busch gave his customary bow to the crowd.

Busch has won two of the last three races, and he has five consecutive top-five finishes. He has jumped from 33rd in the Cup standings after two races to third, only 18 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson.

He owes this career-reviving surge to Norm Miller, the Dallas businessman who stood by Busch at the darkest time of his career.

“Norm is outrageously dependable,” Busch said emphatically after the TMS win. “Write that down.”

Busch purposely wrecked Ron Hornaday’s ride during a Camping World Trucks race at TMS in November 2011. NASCAR, weary of Busch’s temperamental ways, suspended him from competition in the Nationwide and Cup races that weekend.

“Parking” a driver puts a black mark on him. M&M candies, which shared the No. 18 with Interstate Batteries, did not want to be associated with Busch and withdrew its sponsorship for his final two Cup races. Joe Gibbs Racing faced the possibility of losing a valuable sponsor. Busch was that toxic.

Rather than see the No. 18 Toyota Camry team go without paychecks for the final two weeks of the Cup season, Miller picked up sponsorship for two more races. Miller is chairman of Dallas-based Interstate Batteries, which has been with JGR since it began in 1992.

“It seemed like the right thing to do,” Miller said Sunday. “Especially because Kyle’s infraction occurred when he was not racing for Joe Gibbs. He was with his own [trucks] team.”

Miller had taken to Busch when he was the enfant terrible with Hendrick Motorsports from 2005 to 2007. Miller liked Busch for his immense driving skills, intelligence and straight talking. Kyle Busch would tell you the truth, even if you did not like the answer, Miller said.

When Hendrick brought in Dale Earnhardt Jr. to replace Busch after the 2007 season, Miller lobbied Gibbs to put Busch in the No. 18 in place of J.J. Yeley.

“He had tremendous stats at a young age,” Miller said. “I told Joe, ‘In my opinion, if you sign this guy, he can win for 20 years for you.’”

The Gibbs-Busch pairing has not been all sweetness and light. Gibbs thought Busch’s involvement with his own team took away from Cup efforts. The 2011 incident at TMS strained the relationship nearly to the breaking point.

Last season tested everyone involved with the No. 18. Gibbs said that in 22 years as a team owner, he has never had a driver go through as many bitter racing disappointments as did Busch.

The capper came at Richmond, the last race before the Chase. Busch had a poor run and finished 16th, allowing Jeff Gordon to sneak past him and get the last spot in the Chase. It marked the second time in four seasons that Busch missed the Chase.

Miller suffered along with Busch during last season.

“I kept telling him,” Miller said, “to ‘hang in there, you’re a good racer with a good team; everybody is trying, and time will take care of it. You will rise to the top.’”

The words were prophetic. Gibbs said Busch showed “real maturity” during last year’s failures, and that has carried over into this season.